InPrint provided a great response to industrial printing: with unparalleled expertise in integrating screen, pad, and digital printing into complex production processes, Marabu has met with great interest among visitors at InPrint 2015.

The second edition of InPrint confirmed once more: Industrial printing as part of the production process is important and becomes even more complex. At the Marabu booth, many visitors sought solutions for specific technical problems and requirement profiles. From functional and decorative liquid coatings to UV-curable, solvent- and water-based inks, Marabu displayed the versatility of industrial applications showing the respective benefits of screen, pad, and digital printing.

Screen and pad printing strong – digital printing on the rise

Industrial printing has a significant potential, regardless of the particular printing technology which is integrated. When it comes to mass production, variety and flexibility in printing forms, screen and pad printing continue to demonstrate their strengths. Nevertheless, a clear trend to digital printing was visible across all applications, no matter if it is the automotive industry, packaging, membrane switches, technical markings, functional inks and coatings, decorative surface finishing or textile printing. Whether printing on metal, glass, textile, wood, plastic, or melamine, digital printing ensures fully re-producible results and makes it possible to frequently switch designs from project to project, without the need for costly and time-consuming machine changeover. Printing on glass for interior designs was particularly in demand at this year’s InPrint. And Mara® Shield liquid coatings are perfect for this. They can be used as primers, for finishing, as a protective coating for high-quality digital prints, or, in the UV-CGL shades, for colouring large glass surfaces. Kitchen and furniture manufacturers can choose from a wide variety of shades, and are able to offer their customers specific colours from the Pantone, RAL, HKS, etc. systems. Further possibilities for inkjet inks include photo-realistic prints on windows or glass countertops. Plus, digital printing with the UV-curable Ultra Jet ink series can be used to produce a high-end wood-look effect for furniture, doors, floors, or panels.

The combination of screen and digital printing creates new opportunities

Even if the digital printing sector is growing steadily, there are limits for some applications and requirement profiles when it comes down to opacity and the creation of ink layers of varying thickness. In these cases a combination of screen and digital printing has proven to be particularly strong, especially for membrane switches. Membrane switches and keyboards are an integral part of many electronic control units. Marabu offered two typical screen printing solutions for all common makes of film, the UV-curable Ultra Switch UVSW as well as the solvent-based Mara® Switch MSW. For the first time, Marabu presented a package for membrane switches that combines the advantages of screen and digital printing technology. The design can be printed with the Ultra Jet DUV-A in CMYK colour mode directly onto the foil without a time-consuming pre-press process. Only the white barrier layer is screen-printed. This combination makes the production faster, easily customizable and cost-effective.

Printing on packaging – Customized, high-quality, efficient

Packaging remains a major topic in industrial printing. In this case the quality of the printed design as well as the achievable production speed determine the printing technology which is applied. Marabu displayed the Ultra Pack LEDC, which delivers excellent results in terms of adhesion, opacity, degree of gloss, and reactivity.The LED-curable screen printing ink is suitable for container printing and flatbed label applications. The good opacity works especially for full area prints or text. Inkjet printing directly onto PET or glass bottles opens the door to completely new possibilities in packaging designs without labels. Depending on system configuration, it is possible to complete smaller custom jobs or large-volume production runs at very high speeds.